The Latte Effect – An Open Offer to the Community

An entrepreneur/software consultant by the name of Brent contacted me yesterday and mentioned that he was moving to Boulder in a couple weeks from Austin and was “looking forward to getting involved” in the community here. I have never met or spoke with Brent, but the fact that he reached out meant a lot and I offered to buy him a welcome latte when he comes into town. I am fairly new to Boulder myself and as open as our community is, it can be intimidating at first to get to know others even if one is fortunate to know where to start.

Most of us are familiar with the theory of Butterfly Effect, where a small seemingly meaningless change or influence at one location creates a force with larger, more drastic implications elsewhere. Strangely, I woke up this morning thinking of this in the context of the welcome latte and decided I would try an experiment. Why not, right?

So, here it goes; the first “community” event I attended here in Boulder was the Boulder Open Coffee Club held at Atlas Purveyors twice a month, every other Tuesday (check Facebook page here for updates). My first attendance was at the beginning of March this year and it gave me a great insight into the inclusiveness of the community.

The Experiment:

If you are new to Boulder, thinking of moving to Boulder, or you’ve been meaning to get involved but just haven’t taken the first step – I want to buy you a latte (or another caffeinated bevy of your choosing) on your first #BOCC Tuesday you attend. I am going to do this 100 times for the first 100 people who take me up on this offer. You’ll have someone to hang out with there if you want or you can take the latte’ and run the other direction. The only string that is attached to this offer is that you must commit to buying a latte’ for 2 people you don’t currently know today in the 30 days following #BOCC and these do not need to be at #BOCC or at Atlas Purveyors.

Why not? The community in Boulder is awesome. The energy is great here but frankly, I would just like to see more Brents coming to Boulder. (Speaking of which, give Brent a welcome shout out on twitter if you have a minute @spinuplabs, I’m sure he would like to hear from you.)